Digital keys are vital for many different aspects of computer security. For instance, to provide for secure communications between computers, a key may be used to encrypt the communications. Also, to provide for authentication of a message, a key may be used to digitally sign the message before the message is transmitted from a sender to a recipient.
For effective security, some types of keys must be kept private. For instance, public key cryptography involves a pair of keys, with one of the keys being public and the other key being private. In addition, it is sometimes necessary to copy or migrate a private key from one device to another. For instance, if a user of an old personal computer (PC) acquires a new PC, the user may need to migrate one or more private keys from the old PC to the new PC.
The present disclosure describes methods and apparatus for migrating keys.